Cincinnati's "Black Sunday" 75 years ago, when great flood of 1937 ravaged Tri-State

CINCINNATI - "Black Sunday"..the day fires blazed and gas tanks exploded while the flooding continued. This is considered the worst day along the 981 mile long Ohio River. Nearly 400 people died during this 18-day floods of 1937. Cincinnati's power was shut down and emergency power tapped in from Dayton. The flooding drove 100,000 people from their Cincinnati homes. The river washed over an entire fifth of the city and much of Covington & Newport.

Here in Greater Cincinnati, flood waters impacted everything. The water supply was cut for fear of contamination, streets car service was obviously stopped especially because boat traffic became the travel of choice. All this happened while the flood waters kept people in the dark without any electricity.

Oddly enough, this wall of water contributed to your safety today. Following this historic flood, the Army Corp of Engineers created more than 70 storage reservoirs reducing the flood threat over the years. Since the great flood, billions of dollars have been spent to reinforce, realign, redesign the entire nature of the river.

Brian Astifan who is a hydraulic engineer for the Army Corp of Engineers puts it this way: "One of the biggest changes is of course technology. Back in 1937, what little river information they had was relayed by telegraph and maybe just the ones they didn't get washed away. Now, we use river gauges communicating by satellite to deliver the information."

Nevertheless, as we know, their efforts only mitigate the effects, not stop it.

Pictures from 1997, OUR great flood, shows the river at just 65 feet. As the water spilled over the banks then, the state declared Hamilton County and 27 other counties, in Ohio, disaster areas. The '97 flood caused $180 million in damage. Of course, this flood story doesn't even take into account Northern Kentucky where some cities were nearly washed away.

"It's just a matter of time. We hit 80 feet back in 1937 and we'll hit it again maybe next year or hundred years. Our job is to relay the information to future generations to help them prepare for a catastrophic flood," Astifan said.